Windows Phone sales may not have yet reached the levels of iOS or Android-based devices, but there are indications that things are looking up for Microsoft's mobile OS. A few days ago, StatCounter reported that, according to their data, the market share for Windows Phone went up in Europe in July by 24 percent.

Now eWeek.com reports that, according to a study by the research firm Canalys, worldwide sales of Windows Phone products shot up by a whopping 277 percent in the second quarter of 2012. Their data claims that there were 5.1 million Windows Phone units sold in the second quarter, compared to just 1.3 million units from the same period a year ago.

That caused Windows Phone to experience a rise in the total smartphone market share. In the second quarter of 2011, it was just at 1.2 percent but Canalys now says it has gone up two full percentage points to 3.2 percent.

Even with this jump, Windows Phone is still well behind iOS and Android sales. Canalys said that Android devices now control 68 percent of the total smartphone market with 108 million units sold in the second quarter. iOS (iPhone) product sales take a 16.4 percent share of the market, with Apple selling 26 million units in the second quarter.

While Google, Apple and Microsoft saw gains in the second quarter for their smartphone operating systems, Research in Motion saw a massive drop. Canalys claims that its Blackberry phones took a sales nose dive, selling just 8.5 million units in the second quarter. Its market share went down from 11.6 percent in 2011 to just 5.4 percent in 2012.